Title: Three
Author: Ted Dekker
Publisher: W Publishing Group, Nashville
Copyright: 2003
Pages: 353
ISBN: 0-8499-4372-8
Genre: Christian suspense/psychological thriller
Kevin Parson is an innocent figure, a primitive seminary student who fumbles with cell phone technology and buries it. himself in books, especially acquired, of all kinds. But he has secrets about the past that he prefers to keep in the past. To Kevin’s trouble, he wants them to open up. A relative receives a bomb threat with a demand for a confession. The clock starts ticking. The detonated bomb proves that the threat is not idle. In the process of finding and arresting the killer known as “Slater”, Cognes is torn between who to believe and what to believe.
The book opens with a scene between Kevin and one of the professors. They engage in a philosophical discussion about the possibility of evil in all people. D. Francis has just noted that the man beyond evil will arrive in earthly life, with Coemgen. he concludes, “Therefore all are condemned to a life of evil.” Dr. Francis corrects Kevin: “He lived struggle with evil, not a life of evil” (2). This friendly debate begins with a terrifying clarity for Kevin as Slater continues to terrorize him. But nothing is what it seems at the maddening stage, or perhaps everything is what it seems at all.
Dekker produced a new picture of the capacity for the worst kinds of evil in each person. Again, this is the cover of the first pages of the novel. As Dr. Francis and his disciple leave, Coemgen concludes that the bishop is capable of murder. Earlier, he had asked Dr. If Francis thought he was going to be a bishop forever, a question to which D. Francis gives an affirmative answer. Now, Kevin says, “Just one last thought. Absolutely, a rumor isn’t that different from a murder, right?” When Dr. Agreeing with Francis, Kevin says that if the bishop is capable of gossip, he is capable of murder (4-5).
Jesus taught the same concept. In his famous Sermon on the Mount, he preached, “You have heard that it was once said to the people: Do not commit murder, and everyone who commits murder will be subject to judgment.” but he who is angry will be subject to his brother’s judgment (Matthew 5:21-22a). Dekker’s novel offers a stunning portrait of a mild-mannered seminary student who plumbs the depths of evil and learns a great lesson as a result: Evil thrives in darkness, but when the light exposes evil, evil withers and dies. This lesson is also taken directly from the pages of Scripture. Paul wrote: For you were once darkness, but now there is light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light (for the fruit of the light is in all goodness, and justice, and truth) and hasten to the Lord. the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather to manifest them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret: 8-14a).
Frankly, I believe that this novel engine sold on its own strength. But the lessons Kevin learns about human are invaluable to all of us. It is not until we oppose our capacity for evil that the message of Christ’s righteousness becomes so incredibly precious in us. Only when we see the incredible depth of our need and our inadequacy to meet this need, then do we begin to recognize His provision for our need.
Holy Scripture from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Courtesy of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
